Chapter 12 -- Configuring SMS Security

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Chapter 12

Before You Begin

Without site security, a Systems Management Server site could be compromised maliciously or accidentally by users unqualified to administer SMS. Site security protects file systems, the SMS databases, and user accounts.

SMS distributes server services (processes and threads), client agents, directories, and files to computer resources throughout the network. Therefore, securing SMS extends beyond the site server and the SMS Administrator console. Site security involves:

• Share rights and NTFS permissions
• Database security
• User accounts and groups

SMS setup configures the site with minimum security. Before securing the system further, it is important to understand what permissions are required by SMS components for various tasks and what options are available for applying minimum or maximum security.

To do the exercises in this chapter, you must have followed the instructions in "About This Book" and completed the exercises in Chapter 2. That is, Computer 1 must be configured as a site server and Computer 2 must be configured to start Windows NT Workstation version 4.0. In addition, you must have created packages, as described in Chapter 4.